


And You’re Here

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Before I See TROS [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Badass Kylo Ren, Badass Rey, Kylo Ren Redemption, M/M, Minor Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Not Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Possibly a Fix It?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21867088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: The redemption of Kylo Ren.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Series: Before I See TROS [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575391
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31
Collections: Allbingo





	And You’re Here

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Wild Card — Evil to Good
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: Call this an idea I had for a while and am releasing before I see TROS proper. Rey lying to Palpatine comes from the Restored Content Mod for KOTOR II, where you can actually trick Darth Nihilus. Kickass, huh? 
> 
> Title paraphrased from the song “And I’m Here” by Kim Kyunghee.

Capturing Rey, Poe and FN-2187 was all too easy. It was talking to Poe that was the hard part. Even walking down towards Poe’s cell, Kylo couldn’t help but feel like his feet had heavy weights attached to them. Still, he kept walking.   
  
Poe wasn’t groveling, even though he had every right to. Of course he wouldn’t. His Resistance hero. As Kylo entered his cell, Poe said, “You know, if you wanted to get kinky...”  
  
“That,” Kylo said darkly, “Isn’t funny, Poe. I mean...Commander.”  
  
“Pity,” Poe said. “I missed your sense of humor. At least you aren’t wearing that stupid mask. I can actually understand you now.”  
  
Kylo nodded. He wondered, really, if that was really a good thing.   
  
“So you killed Snoke,” Poe said. “I’m glad you did. Didn’t have to pin it on Rey, though.”  
  
Kylo was quiet.   
  
“I’ve always been here,” Poe said, his voice almost cracking. “When I went to Jakku, I wasn’t just looking for Luke Skywalker. I was looking for you. To help you. And after Crait...I was looking for you. It doesn’t mean that...what you did on the Finalizer was okay, but I can love you. I can be angry at you. I can do both.” A beat. “And I can still have faith you’ll come home.”  
  
“You don’t understand.” Kylo’s voice cracked in that moment. He couldn’t look at Poe, if he was to be honest. He didn’t know how Poe could bear to look at him, actually, after all he had done.   
  
“What don’t I understand?” Poe said. “You’re Ben. Somewhere in there, I know you are. I know that there is a part of you that believes in good. In saving people. In truth and beauty. The Dark Side doesn’t change your personality so fundamentally that you forget who you are.”  
  
"I’ve done too much evil to come back.”  
  
“Any more than your grandfather, who killed kids? Any more than any other Dark Sider before you?”  
  
Kylo winced. “They were different,” he said.   
  
“Not that different. I can’t hate you, Ben. I’ve wracked my brain, but I can’t.”  
  
Kylo stared at him. Even the idea...how could Poe look at him and not see a monster? Rey’s faith had been powerful, but it had been only skimming the surface of an idea. An image of Ben Solo.   
  
“I couldn’t take it if you hated me,” Kylo finally admitted. It was quiet in the pale silence of Poe’s cell. “After I...hurt you, I almost vomited. I almost broke.”  
  
Poe nodded, but he looked disbelieving. Amazed.  
  
Kylo continued. “I killed Han Solo. I can’t go home after this.”  
  
“Then start a new home,” Poe said. “With me.”  
  
Kylo swore that he was going to come apart just with the sheer purity behind Poe’s voice. He couldn’t afford it. He had to get away from Poe or he’d drown...but stars, he wanted to drown, to be consumed, if it only meant —  
  
 _You wanted to come back at Starkiller._  
  
He remembered. He remembered too well.   
  
_Snoke goaded you. You did so many things in his name. And then when you broke free, you lashed out so the galaxy could feel your pain._  
  
That couldn’t be denied.   
  
“You are too good for this galaxy,” Kylo said. “A better man than me. And I can’t hurt you again. I doubt I can kill you either. I sacrificed so much. But I can’t hurt you.” A beat. “I was never a good Jedi. Or a good Knight of Ren. I suppose I simply...am.”  
  
“You can be more,” Poe said. “Not Jedi, not Dark Side...you can just be Ben Solo. You can be free.”  
  
Could he? Was that an option? Was freedom even an option? He wasn’t Revan. He wasn’t Ulic Qel-Droma. He couldn’t just come back from what he did.   
  
But forging a new path...  
  
“Possibly,” he said. “Possibly.”  
  
Slowly, Kylo raised his hand, used the Force to unlock Poe’s wrists. Poe ran to him, took his hands, like he was already aching to kiss him, to hold him. How would Kylo do that? How would he even begin to be...whole again?  
  
“See?” Poe said. “You’re already doing it.”  
  
They freed Rey and FN-2187...Finn, Kylo supposed he should call him now. It was odd calling the defector that he had badly injured “Finn”, but here he was. (He supposed it was no surprise Poe had come up with it. That was Poe, seeing the good in others, even and especially when they couldn’t see it in themselves) Finn was distrusting, but Rey...she was close to tears, tears of joy this time, like somehow she’d known he’d do the right thing sooner or later.   
  
Kylo couldn’t say he knew what to say to that.  
  
***  
  
Tricking the stormtroopers had been easy. It had been a matter of persuading them that yes, Kylo had nothing but the intention of escorting Resistance vermin to their doom. No one really questioned what the Supreme Leader was doing, except Hux, and Hux was otherwise occupied by squealing out orders to his crew on the _Finalizer._ Then they reached the right hallway, and what lay at the end.   
  
“This may be the end of an all-too-brief partnership,” Kylo said. “I never dreamed that I would die in the service of a scavenger, a defector, and a pilot. I suppose I could die in the service of two new friends...and a man I love.”  
  
He nodded towards Finn and Rey, then Poe respectively even as he said those words. Rey smiled, as did Finn, if reluctantly. Poe spoke up. “Ben, this doesn’t have to be the end.”  
  
“I don’t know if I’ll survive this,” Kylo said. “The Emperor is powerful. Even his first death did nothing but slow him down. And I...I’ve never been strong.”  
  
Poe stepped forward. Placed a hand on Kylo’s shoulder. Kylo’s heart fluttered despite himself; he hadn’t even so much as thought that he would feel this touch again. Something warm, something familiar. “Snoke lied,” Poe said. “I mean...you managed to trick him. To kill him. You think that’s not strong?”  
  
“I did.” Kylo could swear that he felt a sort of warmth spreading in him, warmer than even the Light Side or the Dark Side could offer. “Tricking Palpatine’s going to be a different beast.”  
  
“You’ll succeed,” Poe said. “And you’ll go from the Supreme Leader himself to the savior of our galaxy. I know it.”  
  
“I hope so.”   
  
“You will, sweetheart. You will. Good luck.”  
  
If Rey or Finn seemed surprised by Poe calling Kylo “sweetheart”, they didn’t comment.   
  
“There’s no such thing as luck,” Kylo said lightly. “There’s only the Force.”  
  
Poe shrugged. “You have your beliefs, I have mine.”  
  
Kylo hugged him impulsively. He couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread in that moment, like Poe would slip through his fingers again. He memorized his scent, like the forest of Yavin, the thickness of his hair and how soft it felt, a man that he would have killed the galaxy for if possible.   
  
They broke away. Poe grinned at him. “Give him hell. Both of you.”  
  
Rey smiled over at Poe, Finn winked at Rey, and Kylo and Rey (after Kylo put his helmet back on. Appearances had to be maintained until the right moment) both entered the next room.   
  
***  
  
The room was far too pale for Kylo’s liking. Even making his way into the room where he knew Palpatine was, Kylo couldn’t help but think he would have liked it better facing the Emperor in nothing but shadow.   
  
The Emperor sat at the end of the room, seeming all too at home in the room that seemed too bright. He smiled. “So the scavenger comes to us.”  
  
Rey straightened up in that moment. “I seek to finish what Anakin Skywalker began,” she said, “Long ago.”  
  
Kylo knew where she was going with this, and he admired her for it. In a way, he had always admired her, even when she’d humiliated him. Now was no exception.   
  
The Emperor tilted his head. “You’ve accepted the truth of your lineage, then?”  
  
“I have,” Rey said. “I am the true heir of the lost Empire. Skywalker deceived me. Made me believe that I was no more than his dejarik piece. Grandfather...I wish to offer Supreme Leader Ren as a sacrifice for my intentions.”  
  
Kylo could feel Finn and Poe’s horror outside the walls. He sent an impression through the Force, telling them to wait.   
  
“You do?” Palpatine sounded surprised — genuinely surprised.   
  
Rey nodded. “He is unworthy of the Dark Side. He failed to kill his uncle. He failed against me. I am...more powerful. Take me instead of him. I can honor your legacy by killing this ugly stain on our history.”  
  
She drew her lightsaber. Kylo, for a moment, hated her — then he felt that familiar reassurance from her, and he knew, in that moment, that surprise was their best weapon.   
  
_Follow my lead,_ Rey sent, and they fought. They did a good job of keeping up the charade, at least until they purposely knocked over the artifact that was left on the table. It wouldn’t completely defeat Palpatine, but it would weaken him.   
  
Palpatine’s scream — a _“NO!”_ that rang out that Kylo hadn’t thought that he would hear from the Emperor — was enough to make Kylo wince, at least a little. The Emperor could get hammy when he needed to. Kylo wondered if he could have been a theater actor if he hadn’t been a monster.   
  
After doubling over in pain, the Emperor glared at the both of them. “What have you done?”  
  
Kylo pulled away his helmet. “It seems,” he said, “That the player has been played.” A beat. “I’m proud of Rey, actually — she’s taking lessons from me. I managed to trick Snoke and kill him; did you hear that story?”  
  
Palpatine stood up. The rage in his face...it was almost bestial in nature.   
  
“You will die for your betrayal,” the Emperor hissed. “Slowly, and in great pain.”  
  
“Not if we don’t get you first.”  
  
Poe’s voice. He and Finn had made it in, Finn with his lightsaber drawn, Poe with his blaster drawn.  
  
“Children with weapons,” the Emperor sneered, “A slayer of his own kin and a lovesick martyr, two traitors to their bloodline...but not heroes. I spilled the blood of four men who thought they could take me on. I can do it again, and it would be a pleasure.”  
  
“You talk too much,” Poe said. “Block this.”  
  
He threw a grenade the Emperor’s way, and Rey and Kylo and Finn rushed him, Poe staying back to back up the other three however he could. They threw whatever they could at him, every Force power, every lightsaber move, and the Emperor gave as good as he got. It was Kylo who reached through the Force, and froze Palpatine.   
  
The Emperor’s look of shock was almost comical. Kylo could imagine a “no, it cannot be, I’m invincible” following it. It didn’t last long as Rey severed his head, and they watched it roll along the floor.  
  
“You think we should burn his body?” Poe said. “Just to make sure?”  
  
Kylo chuckled, suddenly relieved now that the fight was over. Now that he was good as free. Now that Poe was here, at the end of all things, with him. Now that the Emperor had been defeated. A second time. “Poe,” he said. “Angel. I think you watch too many horror holovids.”  
  
***  
  
It was Finn who persuaded the other stormtroopers to come with them. Zorii was already piloting the shuttle to get them out of the First Order base, which the Resistance was now hitting with all they had. If she seemed surprised that the former Supreme Leader of the First Order was coming with them, she said nothing. Kylo got in the shuttle (one of many, he realized. The stormtroopers were on the other shuttle, the Knights of Ren on another), suddenly feeling very, very tired.  
  
“Hey,” Poe said softly. “You did it. You beat him. You did good, Ben.”  
  
“It’ll be interesting explaining this to what’s left of the Resistance,” Kylo said.   
  
“We’ll get there when we get there,” Poe said.  
  
The shuttle blasted off from the collapsing First Order base, Rey and Finn’s hands entwined, Poe’s head resting on Kylo’s shoulder. And for a moment, Kylo thought, they could pretend that that was how it always was. If the galaxy had been kinder, two lovers together, like any other pair would have been.


End file.
